Computerized systems have long been used in connection with the ordering and selling of products and services. However, typically, the systems are designed to handle a single level in any channel of trade. For example, a web site may have product-ordering software which allows the consumer to order products on-line. In turn, the seller will typically use a different computer program to order products from its own vendors. The vendors, in turn, may have their own suppliers who also have there own product-ordering software.
While some companies may optimize their databases so that they can automatically generate purchase orders based upon automated customer requests, such software often needs to overcome the different formats required by the different software programs. The inefficiencies of such a system is increased by the fact that each entity will have its own separate product ordering and supply ordering software, with the concomitant need to convert their data from one format to another.
The disadvantages of such prior art systems are particularly manifest in products that contain personalized information, such as the typesetting associated with the impression of a stamp. Typically a customer will call or fax in an order. The reseller will write down the information and then typeset it or pass it on to another manufacturer. Thus, the image is sent up the chain of distribution until it finally reaches the company that makes the part containing the typesetting. Each of these steps leads to possible errors in the personalization. The image might go through many conversions, be it from paper to facsimile to one electronic format to another electronic form. Each conversion or handling by an intermediary entity increases the possibility of error.
Accordingly, there is a need for a centralized system serving the needs of multiple entities across a particular channel of trade which can automatically generate customer and supply orders in response to customer requests. There is a further need for a system which can resolve the accuracies inherent in ordering personalized products.